For centuries measuring hand tools have been used to aid individuals working in the construction and home improvement industries. Some examples include rulers, tape measures, levels, protractors, stud finders, nail detectors and laser rulers just to name a few. When using these hand tools it is usually necessary to record the information gathered from the tool onto the surface on which the measurement took place. The process of the transference of information can be subject to inaccuracies and historically has involved the user taking a pen or pencil and marking information on the measured surface by hand. More recently, improvements have been made to produce a mark on the measured surface automatically from the measuring handtool. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,829,152, 6,178,655 and 7,278,223 to Potter and Dever provide examples of some of these tools and all of these patents are herein incorporated by reference. These newer tools reduce the time involved in marking and free up the user's second hand for other processes such as positioning the tool more accurately. These newer types of tools necessarily require some sort of marking element that usually is consumed over time. The integration of the marking element with the tool is challenging. The marking element's accuracy, compactness and ease of replacement depend on many parameters. The current patent application provides for a simple, replaceable marking cartridge that solves these challenges.